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June is my favourite month. First of all, it’s the month that summer starts and warm weather is always a huge plus when you live in my corner of Canada and deal with temperatures that can reach 40 degrees Celcius…below zero! And my birthday falls near the middle of the month so that’s also great. It’s the last Thursday of the month, so it’s time for June’s Thankful Thursday: I’m thankful for another year of life—I turned 34 on June 18! This gratefulness will never go away. A colleague was telling me last week that cancer took the life of the father of her brother’s best friend who committed suicide last year–two deaths within a year in the same family. There’s a lot of sadness in this world, a lot of people taken before their time (at least that’s what we think; God knows better). I’m thankful that I still … Continue reading →

I’m glad you enjoyed the recap of my sister’s engagement ceremony…so on to the wedding! I forgot a detail from the engagement: her shoe strap came undone while she was dancing into the hall and she just danced as if nothing was wrong. She was worried but only someone who knows her well would have noticed. In all, the engagement ceremony was about four or five hours long. The guests who came from out of town were driving back home and wanted to get home before dark, so they cleared out of the hall pretty quickly. Both sides of our family divided up the engagement offerings and transported it (and themselves) home. My sister, brother, cousins, and I headed back to the home we were staying at to get ready for the big day. When we got home from the engagement we changed into casual clothing and started working on … Continue reading →

I’ve decided to start posting Thankful Thursdays on the last Thursday of the month…let’s see how long this lasts! I’m thankful: …for protection during my solo trip to Paris and London. …that my sister is adjusting well to life in Nigeria. She’s adjusted to the intermittent electricity and the occasional cockroach in a way that I doubt I could. Speaking of cockroaches, it annoys me so much that even a clean home can’t prevent those critters from finding their way in (or can it?). I hate bugs…I miss my sister because she used to kill bugs for me. :) …for the milestone that my youngest brother, Babatunde celebrated: on May 25 he turned 25. When your age and your day of the month you were born on are the same, they call that your champagne birthday here. It’s pretty incredible to think my parents’ youngest child is 25, that we’ve … Continue reading →

My sister has been married for almost two months and I still haven’t written about the engagement and wedding! I’ll start with the engagement today. We were staying in Akure and the wedding was in Ondo, so the original plan was to stay in a hotel in Ondo for a few days. But then family friends connected us with their relative who had a home in Ondo that she wasn’t using so we ended up renting that place instead. We arrived on a Thursday, the day before the engagement, and I think we spent the first hour of our stay running around and exclaiming over how lovely everything was. The house (or shall we say villa?) had an enormous generator that powered the many (too many?) air conditioners—we were in heaven! While we were busy chilling (literally and figuratively) in the villa, our parents were with other family members at … Continue reading →

Some of you might remember the Love and Learn series that I launched last year. It was inspired by my failed relationship, one that really affected me because 1) it was my first serious relationship and 2) I was so sure it would lead to marriage (how naive I was!). I was so excited about things that I had started a brand new blog that I shared with just a few people, detailing the progression of the relationship. I was smitten! But it turned out that although I had learned those lessons several months back, I need a refresher: while I was in Nigeria I wanted to see my ex and have the opportunity to ask him some questions. Yes friends, I wanted closure. The desire for closure is funny because intellectually I know there’s no answer that will actually give me closure. Let’s say in the best-case scenario, your … Continue reading →

Whenever I get back from Nigeria, after unpacking and adjusting to reality, the following happens: I keep in touch more regularly with the family back home. I listen constantly to the many cds that I bought. I speak Yoruba whenever possible with my parents, family in Nigeria, and anyone who speaks Yoruba. I regret not eating more boli (roasted plantain), epa (peanuts), and roasted corn. I’m inspired to be more focused on money-making ideas so I can positively impact the lives of the people I met. I miss the heat (Say what? The same heat I complained about on the regular?). I consider moving to Europe to be halfway between Nigeria and Canada. I wish I had access to the hair salons of Nigeria (at the same prices!). I regret not buying another kan kan (I always buy at least one but I always wish I had bought more), a … Continue reading →

Hello! I'm Jummy, also known as Good Naija Girl or GNG. I'm Nigerian by parentage, Canadian by citizenship, and American by birth. I use this blog to help me find a balance between the different aspects of my identity that have been battling each other for ...more